


Sides

by salamadersaurus_rex



Series: Alex/Maggie/Lucy [5]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Happy Ending, Hospital Setting, Tumblr Prompt, some depictions of injuries but nothing graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-17 02:11:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10584264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salamadersaurus_rex/pseuds/salamadersaurus_rex
Summary: Tumblr prompt from bungledramblingsofalesbianmind: "For Director Sanvers... what about something angsty... like Alex going against an order from Lucy and Maggie trying not to take sides?"





	

**Author's Note:**

> So this went in a different, much more painful direction than I expected. I'm so sorry. Thanks for the prompt!

It was going so well. _So_ well, Maggie thinks as she hangs up on Vasquez and strides across the bullpen. She’d given Alex a key to her apartment maybe a month before she met Lucy. Lucy’d charmed one out of her within weeks of them becoming ‘official’. Maggie ignores the lift, just opened on her partner with the coffee she’d asked him for perched on a fresh case file, and takes the stairs down two at a time.

It’s barely evening, the sky still streaked with blues and purples like a bruise as the setting sun burns the gathering clouds copper. Their third date Lucy drove them out to the desert in an old pickup Maggie hasn’t seen since, loaded up with blankets and beer and a Stevie Nicks CD blasting from the speakers as they rolled towards the setting sun. They sat up half the night in each other’s laps, watching the stars, wishing silently on a comet they didn’t have to go back to the city.

Maggie’s revving the engine before she’s even properly settled on her bike, tearing out into a gap in the traffic and down the hill to where the sirens pool in the cracked asphalt of the ambulance bay. Alex keeps a first aid kit in the cupboard under the sink. Plasters for scrapes after scraps with some gang in an abandoned warehouse, jokes about tetanus jabs as they don plastic gloves and patch each other up in the kitchen.

Maggie ditches her bike in the carpark, the spot Kara jokes she should have her name painted in, the number of casualties she’s flown here. She sprints towards the entrance, blue lights flashing silently in the corner of her eyes as an ambulance screams past towards the bay. The DEO’s med-bay is state of the art, kitted out for the bumps and bruises of a hundred different species. Maggie once held down an alien convict as Alex stitched up the gash in his leg, said something silly about her girlfriend’s bedside manner that Lucy seconded from the other side of the room, saying next time she’d head straight for the hospital.

But hospitals smell like alcohol leaching from the walls, white linoleum and thick cream paint crumbling under the knuckles of loved ones in the waiting room.

There’s a woman with brown hair flecked ash grey sat behind the desk. The thin silver chain joining the arms of her glasses together behind her head is what holds Maggie’s attention as she tosses her badge on the desk.

“Where are they?”

The woman tries to catch Maggie’s gaze, grounding her with a calm stare. “Who?”

“Umm, two women. There was an accident and they shouldn’t be here they should be at-“

“Maggie?” Vasquez is behind her, blood tarred black in her hair, rolling in dark beads down the side of her face. “Supergirl flew Alex here because it was closer. She’s in theatre.”

Maggie sags against the desk. “Oh god.”

“She’s going to be okay, Maggie.”

“Where’s Lucy?”

“Having her shoulder reset. She wasn’t as badly hurt.”

“I have to go find her,” Maggie mumbles. Her head is spinning, she’s willing the world to pause for just one second so she can make sense of it all.

“This way,” Vasquez says gently and Maggie slips her shoulder under Vasquez’s, helps her hobble down a corridor following the blood red strip on the signs hanging on thin wires from the ceiling to the emergency room.

“Are you okay?” Maggie only thinks to ask minutes later.

“It looks worse than it is,” Vasquez says. “Alex got the brunt of it.”

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure. Lucy told us to keep back, then a second later Alex was running into the middle of the warehouse, the middle of a trap and then there was an explosion…” Vasquez is normally unflappable but Maggie can feel her shaking. “She’s going to be okay though,” she says, resolutely.

Maggie can see doctors bustling about through the open double doors in front of her, blue scrubs bright under the fluorescent lighting. Vasquez stops at the entrance and tells her to go ahead, that Lucy’s two beds in on the left.

The curtains are closed round the bed, but Maggie can hear Lucy making that soft hissing noise she does through her teeth when something hurts. Maggie tugs the curtains apart to see Lucy lying on a hospital bed, a nurse holding her down whilst a harried looking doctor manipulates her right shoulder. Lucy looks awful, face ashen and her hair matted with blood. There are burn holes in her tank top, her jacket in tatters draped over the end of the bed.

Lucy’s glassy eyes meet Maggie’s and she gasps out her name as the doctor wrestles her shoulder back into place with a pop. Lucy’s eyes squeeze shut and she grunts, a high pitched whine catching in her throat. The nurse looks up from her and sees Maggie.

“Ma’am, you can’t be here,” he says but Maggie cuts him off, flashing her badge.

“Detective Sawyer. I’m her girlfriend.”

“Come here,” Lucy croaks, beckoning Maggie with her left hand. Maggie hurries to her side, picking up her wrist and feeling for her pulse. “Not dead yet,” Lucy grumbles, lacing her fingers with Maggie’s, pulling her down so Maggie’s hunched awkwardly over the bed, breathing in the stink of smoke and blood off Lucy’s skin. Lucy kisses Maggie hard, all teeth and wet tongue, bites at her lips instead of squeezing her hand when her shoulder twinges painfully.

“See?” she pants. “Where’s Alex? I need to not kiss her like that. She’s grounded after that fucking-“ Lucy catches sight of Maggie’s face. “Maggie? Where’s Alex?”

“In surgery,” Maggie jumps to assure her. “Vasquez says she’s going to be okay, baby. She’s gonna be okay.”

Lucy’s chest heaves. She tries to push herself up off the bed but Maggie holds her down, gently but firmly.

“Stay still baby,” Maggie whispers.

“I told her to stay put,” Lucy groans. Her eyes are glossy with tears, that calm, military steadfastness she needs in the field crumbing now she’s lying in a hospital bed whilst her girlfriend bleeds away on a table. “Stupid fucking rogue-ass agent I said no and she just went and got herself blown up!”

“You can fight her later,” Maggie hushes. She eases herself onto Lucy’s bed, lies down next to her with her booted feet hanging off the edge of the mattress. She wraps Lucy up in her arms. Lucy curls into her chest, holding back sobs even though Maggie can feel her hot tears soaking through her shirt.

A couple of orderlies come over and say something about moving Lucy to a ward. Lucy won’t let Maggie go and they end up rolling on the bed slowly along long, blank stretches of corridor together, staring up at the ceiling.

The orderlies leave them in a dusky, empty ward. Soft yellow light from the open door rests at the edge of the ward’s shadows. Lucy’s eyes are bright in the darkness. A nurse checks Lucy over, hangs up a bag of fluids to drip slowly into the tube in her arm. She points out the call button before she leaves, and says she’ll tell them as soon as Alex is out of surgery.

“She sounds like a fighter,” the nurse pauses at the door, and says kindly. “She’ll pull through.”

The waiting is the worst part. Maggie knows from experience. When she was ten her best friend fell and split her head open. It felt like hours waiting for the screech of the ambulance sirens to come racing down the road. Maggie sat in the waiting room with Sophie’s dad, tiny next to his hairy bulk. He wrapped her in his coat which smelled like sweat and beer, and told her to sleep. She sat wide eyed awake until a doctor came to tell them Sophie was safe.

Lucy won’t sleep either. Even when J’onn comes in to check on her she’s wide awake. He tells them Alex is still in surgery, but there’s a DEO team on the way with better tech than the hospital can imagine. That she’ll be safe in no time. Lucy grabs his arm as he turns to leave.

“Suspend her. When she wakes up. As soon as she wakes up.”

J’onn nods, hesitating before putting his free hand on Lucy’s uninjured shoulder and squeezing. “You both need time to heal.”

“Yeah,” Lucy grumbles, and Maggie wants to think she’s joking but there’s an edge to her voice when she says “I’m going to kick her ass when she’s better again.”

After J’onn leaves they sit in silence. Maggie’s long since kicked off her boots, found the button to raise the top of the bed so she and Lucy can half sit instead of lying flat. She stares at the corner where the wall joins the ceiling, counting Lucy’s soft breaths in the crook of her neck.

“What really happened, Luce?”

“Cadmus.”

Maggie tucks her lip between her teeth. “Jeremiah?”

“She disobeyed a direct order.” Lucy states. “Doesn’t matter who was stood in front of her, she should have stayed put.”

“He’s her dad, Lucy.”

“And you’d run straight for your dad if you saw him, huh?”

“That’s not fair.”

Lucy sucks in a breath. “Ride or die. I forgot.”

“Lucy.” Maggie rolls over to face her, unsurprised to see tears rolling down her face but still shocked. “What…?”

“You’d stick with her to the end of the world, Mags. I would too I love you both so fucking much, but my god, it feels like you’re always taking her side.”

“I’m not taking her side Luce I’m-“

“She might die! Maggie, she might die!”

Maggie slips her fingers into Lucy’s hair, pulling her close to her chest as she sobs openly. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. She’s not going to die. I won’t let that happen. Kara and J’onn, they won’t let that happen I promise baby, she’s going to be fine.”

Lucy bangs her fist weakly against Maggie’s thigh. “She’s been in there for hours, they’re bringing in _specialists_ and all you can do is tell me she can just fuck off and do what she wants when she might have got herself killed!”

Lucy breaks down and Maggie whispers her name over and over like a prayer, holding her as close as she can get as Lucy’s body heaves, incoherent sob after sob clawing out her throat and drowning under the waves of the next one, and she shudders and cries until there’s nothing left. Until her throat is dry and her chest feels empty, and there’s nothing to hear but the steady whisper of _baby girl’s_ and _I love you_ ’s, and the ringing in her ears.

“I’m so scared.”

“I know. I am too.”

“She’s gonna make it.”

“Bet she’s too scared of what you’ll do to her if she doesn’t.”

“Don’t- don’t say that. Not yet.”

“Of course. I’m sorry.”

Maggie’s watch beeps. Eight pm. Her shift’s ended.

“Lucy?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

The nurse from earlier bustles into the ward. “Ladies? Agent Danvers is out of surgery. She’s been taken to the ICU.”

Lucy sighs in relief, Maggie grips her tighter. “She’s okay?”

“She’s a long way from okay, but if you mean she’ll live? Definitely.”

“Can we see her?”

“You need to stay in bed, Ms Lane.”

Lucy sits up, gritting her teeth against the pain in her shoulder. “It’s Major Lane. Don’t make me pull rank.”

“I’m sorry, but-“

“But the hospital will make an exception.” J’onn growls from the doorway. He strides in, pushing an empty wheelchair in front of him.

“Get in, don’t complain.” he says to Lucy. “You are now on mandatory leave until you fully recover.”

“Yes sir.” Lucy grouches, slumping into the chair.

The nurse hooks up her IV to the chair and then they’re away, the soft lighting of the nurse’s station and the corridor too bright after the darkness of the ward. Maggie takes over pushing Lucy and J’onn guides them to a lift, pressing the button for the next floor up.  

“She’s limited to three people at her bedside,” J’onn explains. “Her mother and Kara are in there now. She isn’t awake yet. I must warn you, she looks very ill.”

The lift doors slide open and the three of them slowly move down the quiet ICU corridor. They stop  near the end, outside room five. J’onn makes them clean their hands with hand sanitizer before he knocks gently on the door.

Kara opens it. She’s still dressed as Supergirl, but without the cape. Her face is sooty and her hair is a mess. Pale skin shows through the muck on her face where her tears have washed it away. She reaches out and takes Maggie and Lucy’s hands, squeezing gently.

“You okay?” she asks, and Lucy nods.

“Alex?” Maggie murmurs.

“Still sleeping. There was a lot of internal bleeding, some broken bones, burns…” she takes a deep breath. “But she’s alive, she’s okay.” She holds the door open and Maggie pushes Lucy’s wheelchair in.

Alex looks horrific. Wires and tubes crawl in and out of her body, connecting her to softly beeping machines, an oxygen line in the wall, bags and bags of fluids. She’s deathly pale and her closed eyes are sunken shadows in their sockets. There’s casts on her legs, her right arm. A bandage wrapped tight around her head. Supergirl’s cape is draped over her, keeping her warm in place of a hospital blanket.

Eliza’s sat in the chair next to her bed, holding Alex’s hand, the one with a heartrate monitor on her index finger.

“Hey,” Maggie says softly.

Eliza doesn’t budge but she smiles, beckons them over. Maggie rolls Lucy close enough to the bed that she can reach out and brush her fingers over every inch of Alex’s skin she can find. Maggie settles on the bed by Alex’s feet.

“Hi baby girl,” Maggie whispers. “How’re you doing?”

“Regretting not listening to me, I bet.” Lucy says, but the edge to her voice is gone. She rests her forearms on the bed and slowly leans down until her forehead is resting on Alex’s arm, careful to avoid the tube taped to it. Maggie brushes her knuckles against Lucy’s hair, trailing down until she can feel Alex’s pulse at her wrist, weak but steady.

In Eliza’s hand, Alex’s fingers twitch.

“We’re going to have to talk,” Maggie continues, unaware that Alex is waking up. “Or, I’ll let you and Luce fight it out first. But then we need to talk. We could have lost you, Alex.”

“We love you,” Lucy murmurs against the mattress.

Alex’s lips part. Her eyelids flutter, still, flutter again.

“Luce…” Maggie whispers. Lucy looks up.

“Wh… where…?” Alex croaks, groggily.

“You’re in the hospital, baby.” Eliza says, leaning close to Alex. “You were hurt.”

“Where…?”

“Everywhere,” Kara shuffles into the room, ignoring the three-person limit. “I don’t think there’s a bit of you that isn’t hurt.”

Alex tries to chuckle. It comes out as more of a dry gurgle.

“You want some water?” Maggie asks gently, leaning carefully over Alex to reach for the pink cup of ice chips on the bedside table.

“Want a kiss,” Alex grumbles, and Maggie laughs, pecking Alex tenderly on the lips.

“’Nother one. Lucy.”

Lucy shuffles to the edge of the chair, leaning up so she can kiss Alex. She rests their foreheads together.

 “’M really sorry.” Alex says against her lips. “Should’ve listened.”

“Not now baby. We’ll get into it when you’re better.”

Alex’s left eyelid opens and she side-eyes Lucy. “You’re being mag… magnanimous. How badly am I hurt, really?”

“Enough that you get a day to sort out your excuse.” Lucy murmurs.

“A day. Wow. Mags?”

Maggie raises her hands. “Nope, I’m not taking sides on this one.”

Alex laughs, properly this time. She winces a bit as the stitches in her belly pull slightly. “I’m okay. I’m alive.”

“Good.” Lucy whispers. She reaches behind her for Maggie’s hand, pulling her down so she, Alex and Lucy are nose to nose. “You’d better stay alive.”

“Yes boss.” Alex jokes, then sighs. “I love you. Both of you. Not ever going to leave.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> Expanding my horizons and making things painful. I'm on Tumblr salamadersaurus-rex.


End file.
